Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/44



Do you sympathize with the minority in Rome or the majority in Italy? [A voice, "With Italy."] To-day the South is the minority in America, and they are fighting for independence! For what? [Uproar. A voice, "Three cheers for independence!" Hisses.] I could wish so much bravery had a better cause, and that so much self-denial had been less deluded ; that the poisonous and venomous doctrine of State rights might have been kept aloof; that so many gal- lant spirits, such as Jackson, might still have lived. [Great applause and loud cheers, again and again renewed.] The force of these facts, historical and incontrovertible, can not be broken, except by diverting attention by an attack upon the North. It is said that the North is fighting for the Union, and not for emancipation. The North is fighting for the Union, for that ensures emancipation. [Loud cheers, "Oh, oh!" "No, no!" and cheers.]

A great many men say to ministers of the Gospel: "You pretend to be preaching and working for the love of the people. Why, you are all the time preaching for the sake of the Church." What does the minister say? "It is by means of the Church that we help the people," and when men say that we are fighting for the Union, I, too, say that we are fighting for the Union. ["Hear, hear!" and a voice, "That's right."] But the motive determines the value; and why are we fighting for the Union? Because we never shall forget the testimony of our